The formation of a Command-level body of anti-aircraft defences had been announced in 1938, but Anti-Aircraft Command was not formed until 1 April 1939 under General Sir Alan Brooke, who had been commander of Anti-Aircraft Corps. He then passed control to Sir Frederick Pile, who would remain in command until the end of the war.[1][2][3]

When the TA was reformed after World War II in 1947, AA Command was generously provided for, with a large number of units, some of them including members of the Women's Royal Army Corps (successors of the ATS). It was structured in five regional AA Groups, each commanding a number of TA and Regular AA Brigades:[16][17][18]

Gen Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: The Years of Defeat: Europe and North Africa, 1939–1941, Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution, 1988/London: Brasseys, 1996, ISBN1-85753-080-2.

1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

2.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany

3.
Bentley Priory
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Bentley Priory is an eighteenth to nineteenth century stately home and deer park in Stanmore on the northern edge of the Greater London area in the London Borough of Harrow. It was originally a priory or cell of Augustinian Canons in Harrow Weald. There are no remains of the priory, but it probably stood near Priory House. In 1775, Sir John Soane designed a mansion house north of the original priory, called Bentley Priory. This was added to throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by various owners and it was significantly extended in 1788, again by Sir John Soane, for John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. The priory was the home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, queen consort of William IV. It subsequently served as a hotel and girls school before being acquired by the Royal Air Force in 1926, in the Second World War, Bentley Priory was the headquarters of RAF Fighter Command, and it remained in RAF hands in various roles until 2008. As of 2013, the site has been sold to a developer and plans to some of the building to luxury apartments and build new houses have been approved. The name Bentley is thought to derive from beonet, a kind of coarse grass, although little detail is known, the lands of Bentley Priory and the surrounding area were scantily populated but civilised long before the time of the Romans. At the time the first Priory was dedicated, the majority of the area was in the Manor of Harrow, the rest of the land in which the Priory now stands was in the area held by the Count of Mortain and known as Stanmore Magna. Although the area was in heavily wooded, many Anglo Saxon finds have been made indicating thriving communities around Brockley Hill. Thus the name Bentley would seem to mean land artificially cleared of coarse grass for pasture or cultivation, the original Priory, which was the only monastic establishment in the Manor of Harrow, housed a cell Augustinian Friars. Bentley Priory is believed to have founded in 1171 by Ranulf de Glanvill. It was dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, and was in the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is referred to in the early 14th century, but according to the rolls of manor of Harrow in 1535. The first Priory was reported by Druett in his book, The Stanmores and Harrow Weald Through the Ages and he places it in the area of Priory House on Clamp Hill, with the chapel standing apart on Harrow Weald Common. However, the evidence to substantiate this is inconclusive and it would appear that a small agricultural hamlet existed in the shadow of the Priory Chapel. This Chapel, of which all trace has been lost, is believed to have served the city community that lived on the Weald and he mentions under the date 1248 the story Of the Miserable Death of the Priory of Bentley

4.
Battle of Britain
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The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against the German Air Force attacks from the end of June 1940. It is described as the first major campaign fought entirely by air forces, the primary objective of the Nazi German forces was to compel Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. In July 1940, the air and sea blockade began with the Luftwaffe mainly targeting coastal shipping convoys, ports and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth. On 16 July Hitler ordered the preparation of Operation Sea Lion as an amphibious and airborne assault on Britain. Nazi Germany was unable to sustain daylight raids, but their continued night bombing operations on Britain became known as the Blitz. Its first Chief of the Air Staff Hugh Trenchard was among the military strategists in the 1920s like Giulio Douhet who saw air warfare as a new way to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare, interception was near impossible with fighter planes no faster than bombers. Their view was that the bomber will always get through, Germany was forbidden military air forces by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, but developed aircrew training in civilian and sport flying. In 1926 the secret Lipetsk fighter-pilot school began operating, a winter 1933–34 war game indicated a need for fighters and anti-aircraft protection as well as bombers. On 1 March 1935 the Luftwaffe was formally announced, with Walther Wever as Chief of Staff, the list excluded bombing civilians to destroy homes or undermine morale, as that was considered a waste of strategic effort, but the doctrine allowed revenge attacks if German civilians were bombed. A revised edition was issued in 1940, and the central principle of Luftwaffe doctrine was that destruction of enemy armed forces was of primary importance. In the Spanish Civil War, the Luftwaffe in the Condor Legion tried out air fighting tactics, wolfram von Richthofen become an exponent of air power providing ground support to other services. The difficulty of hitting targets prompted Ernst Udet to require that all new bombers had to be dive bombers. Priority was given to producing large numbers of aeroplanes. The speed with which German forces defeated most of the armies in Norway in early 1940 created a significant political crisis in Britain. In early May 1940, the Norway Debate questioned the fitness for office of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, on 10 May, the same day Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister, the Germans initiated the Battle of France with an aggressive invasion of French territory. The Germans were so convinced of an imminent armistice that they began constructing street decorations for the parades of victorious troops. Instead, Churchill used his skilful rhetoric to harden public opinion against capitulation, the Battle of Britain has the unusual distinction that it gained its name before being fought. In secret conference on 23 May 1939 Hitler set out his rather contradictory strategy that an attack on Poland was essential, if this is impossible, then it will be better to attack in the West and to settle Poland at the same time with a surprise attack

5.
The Blitz
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By September 1940—two months into the battle—faulty German intelligence suggested that the Royal Air Force was close to defeat at the hands of the Luftwaffe. The German air fleets were ordered to attack London, thereby drawing up the last remnants of RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation, Adolf Hitler and commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, sanctioned the change in emphasis on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, one year into the war, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 out of the following 57 days, on 15 September 1940, a large daylight attack against London was repulsed with significant German losses. Thereafter, the Luftwaffe gradually decreased daylight operations in favour of nocturnal attacks, ports and industrial centres outside London were also attacked. The main Atlantic sea port of Liverpool was bombed, the North Sea port of Hull, a convenient and easily found target or secondary target for bombers unable to locate their primary targets, was subjected to raids in the Hull Blitz during the war. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged and more than 40,000 civilians were killed, by May 1941, the threat of an invasion of Britain had ended, and Hitlers attention turned to Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or significantly damage the war economy, the eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British production and the war industries continued to operate and expand. The German offensives greatest effect was forcing the dispersal of aircraft production, British wartime studies concluded that cities generally took 10 to 15 days to recover when hit severely but exceptions like Birmingham took three months. The German air offensive failed for several reasons, discussions in OKL revolved around tactics rather than strategy. Poor intelligence on British industry and economic efficiency was also a factor, in the 1920s and 1930s, air power theorists Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell espoused the idea that air forces could win wars, without a need for land and sea fighting. It was thought there was no defence against air attack, particularly at night, enemy industry, seats of government, factories and communications could be destroyed, taking away their means to resist. It was also thought the bombing of residential centres would cause a collapse of civilian will, democracies, where the populace was allowed to show overt disapproval of the state, were thought particularly vulnerable. This thinking was prevalent in both the RAF and the United States Army Air Corps, the policy of RAF Bomber Command became an attempt to achieve victory through the destruction of civilian will, communications and industry. In the Luftwaffe, there was a view of strategic bombing. OKL did not believe that air power alone could be decisive, contrary to popular belief, evidence suggests that the Luftwaffe did not adopt an official bombing policy in which civilians became the primary target until 1942. The vital industries and transport centres that would be targeted for shutdown were valid military targets and it could be claimed civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. German legal scholars of the 1930s carefully worked out guidelines for what type of bombing was permissible under international law. Wever outlined five points of air strategy, To destroy the air force by bombing its bases and aircraft factories

6.
Operation Steinbock
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Operation Steinbock was a Second World War Luftwaffe strategic bombing campaign against southern England that took place from January to May 1944. It was the last strategic air offensive by the German bomber arm during the conflict, in late 1943 the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive was gathering momentum against Germany. RAF Bomber Command under the leadership of Arthur Harris and the American United States Army Air Force were conducting a strategic bombing campaign day, in retaliation, Adolf Hitler ordered Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, to prepare a bombing operation against the United Kingdom. Christened Steinbock, the offensive also served as propaganda value for the German public and domestic consumption. The operation ran parallel to Bomber Commands campaign against Berlin, placed under the command of Generalmajor Dietrich Peltz, Luftflotte 3, the Germans assembled 474 bomber aircraft for the offensive. The attacks were aimed at and around the Greater London area. In Britain, it was known as the Baby Blitz due to the smaller scale of operations compared to The Blitz. The operation began in January and ended in May 1944, the operation achieved very little, and the German force suffered a loss of some 329 machines during the five months of operations—an average of 77 per month—before it was abandoned. Since its inception in 1909, German aerial doctrine covered most aspects of warfare, close air support, strategic bombing, air interdiction. Doctrine was constantly refined after 1918 through the experiences of World War I, in the inter-war period and for the first years of World War II German air power did not develop night air defence capabilities to any appreciable degree. The British Royal Air Force and RAF Bomber Command remained equally incapable of inflicting damage on Germany, the strategic impasse remained until 1942 when Bomber Command returned in strength to German skies by night. Under the leadership of Arthur Harris the British bomber force grew in size, British scientific advances produced navigation aids which improved on bombing accuracy after the controversy of the Butt Report. British industries were also producing heavy bombers which replaced many of the elderly pre-war medium bomber designs, the consequences of these developments in the air war and Harris determination to end the war through bombing, were a series of destructive attacks on German industrial cities. The attack on Lübeck in March and Operation Millennium against Cologne in May 1942 was a precursor to larger, the Luftwaffe responded with the air attacks in 1942, aimed at selected targets of cultural and historical significance. Operation Gomorrah—the bombing of Hamburg—inflicted 76,600 casualties and destroyed parts of the city. By the end of 1943 the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive had taken a toll on Germany. Under the leadership of Generalleutnant Josef Kammhuber, the Luftwaffe night fighter force expanded and adapted to the threat, only once did the British lose as many as nine percent of the attacking force over Germany—during an attack on Pilsen, Czechoslovakia on 17 May 1943. This was below the ten percent required to force the British to abandon operations, kammhubers efforts were damaged by the amateurish leadership style of Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe

7.
Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke
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Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, KG, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO & Bar was a senior officer of the British Army. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the head of the British Army, during the Second World War. After retiring from the army, he served as Lord High Constable of England during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and his war diaries attracted attention for their criticism of Churchill and for Brookes forthright views on other leading figures of the war. Alan Brooke was born in 1883 at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes-Pyrénées, to a prominent Anglo-Irish family from West Ulster with a military tradition. Brooke was educated in Pau, France, where he lived until the age of 16, he was a bi-lingual in French and English. After graduation from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich Brooke was, on 24 December 1902, during the First World War, he served with the Royal Artillery in France where he gained a reputation as an outstanding planner of operations. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916, he introduced the French creeping barrage system, Brooke was with the Canadian Corps from early 1917 and planned the barrages for the Battle of Vimy Ridge having at his disposal the Corps artillery and that loaned from the British First Army. In 1918 he was appointed GSO1 as the artillery commander in the First Army. Brooke ended the conflict as a lieutenant colonel with the Distinguished Service Order, between the wars, he was a lecturer at the Staff College, Camberley and the Imperial Defence College, where Brooke knew most of those who became leading British commanders of the Second World War. From the mid-1930s Brooke held a number of important appointments, Inspector of Artillery, Director of Military Training, in July 1939 Brooke moved to command Southern Command. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Brooke was already seen as one of the armys foremost generals, as corps commander, Brooke had a pessimistic view of the Allies chances of countering a German offensive. He was sceptical of the quality and determination of the French Army and this scepticism appeared to be justified when he was on a visit to some French front-line units. He was shocked to see unshaven men, ungroomed horses and dirty vehicles and he had also little trust in Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, whom Brooke thought too much interested in details and incapable of taking a broad strategic view. Gort, on the hand, regarded Brooke as a pessimist who failed to spread confidence. When the German offensive began Brooke distinguished himself in the handling of the British forces in the retreat to Dunkirk, in late May 1940 II Corps held the major German attack on the Ypres-Comine Canal but then found its left flank exposed by the capitulation of the Belgian army. Brooke swiftly ordered the 3rd Division to switch from the Corps right flank to cover the gap and this was accomplished in a complicated night-time manoeuvre. According to Montgomery, Brooke was so overcome with emotion at having to leave his men in such a crisis that he broke down, shortly after the evacuation from Dunkirk, he was again sent to France to take command of the remaining British troops in the country. Brooke soon realised that the situation was untenable and in his first conversation with Prime Minister Winston Churchill he insisted that all British forces should be withdrawn from France

8.
RAF Fighter Command
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RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft and it served throughout the Second World War. It earned great fame during the Battle of Britain in 1940, the Command continued until 17 November 1943, when it was disbanded and the RAF fighter force was split into two categories, defence and attack. The defensive force became Air Defence of Great Britain and the force became the RAF Second Tactical Air Force. Air Defence of Great Britain was later renamed Fighter Command and it was finally disbanded in 1968. On 20 May 1926, Fighter Commands precursor organisation was established as a group within Inland Area, on 1 June 1926, Fighting Area was transferred to the Air Defence of Great Britain. Fighting Area was raised to Command status in 1932 and renamed Fighter Command on 1 May 1936. Fighter Command was divided into a number of Groups, each controlling a different part of the UK.11 Group took the brunt of the German attack, as it controlled southeast England and London. It was reinforced by 10 Group, which covered southwest England,12 Group, in the end, the Germans failed to attain air superiority, although the RAF had been eating into its reserves during the battle, as had the Luftwaffe. As 1941 began, Fighter Command began the task of winning air superiority over North Western France from the Germans. Large numbers of Spitfires were sent out small groups of medium bombers in often vain attempts to lure the German fighters into combat. Most of the factors that had allowed Fighter Command to win the Battle of Britain were now reversed, for example, British pilots who were shot down in 1940 and survived would be patched up and sent back to their units as quickly as possible. In 1941, over France, a shot down pilot would, as likely as not, the year saw RAF Fighter Command claim some 711 Luftwaffe fighters shot down for losses of approximately 400 RAF fighters lost. As 1941 ended, the appearance of the new Fw 190, with its obvious technical superiority over the current Spitfire Mark V, parallel to the day offensive in 1941 was the ongoing night bomber attacks against the United Kingdom in January to May. By this time, until May 1941, the Luftwaffe effort was aimed against both civilian and industrial targets, Fighter Commands defences, however improved almost daily during the first six months of 1941. An increasing number of guns and searchlights were also radar-controlled. From the start of 1941, the Luftwaffes losses mounted, with the impending invasion of Russia requiring the movement of air power to the East, the Blitz ended in May 1941 with Fighter Command in complete control of the night sky over the UK. The difficult task of slowly grinding down the Germans continued into 1942 and 1943, squadrons also found themselves on tiring defensive patrols as small formations of FW-190s started to fly hit and run nuisance raids all along the South Coast

9.
Dunkirk evacuation
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The operation was decided upon when large numbers of Belgian, Canadian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by the German army during the Battle of France. In his We shall fight on the speech on 4 June. After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, France and the British Commonwealth, the British Expeditionary Force was sent to aid in the defence of France. After the Phoney War, Germany invaded Belgium and the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, by 21 May, the German forces had trapped the BEF, the remains of the Belgian forces, and three French armies in an area along the northern coast of France. On 22 May 1940, an order was issued by the German High Command. This gave the trapped Allied forces time to construct defensive works and pull back large numbers of troops toward Dunkirk, to fight the Battle of Dunkirk. On the first day of the evacuation, only 7,669 men were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, the BEF lost 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign and had to abandon nearly all of their tanks, vehicles, and other equipment. In his speech to the House of Commons on 4 June, wars are not won by evacuations. By May 1940 the force consisted of ten divisions in three corps under the command of General John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, working with the BEF were the Belgian Army and the French First, Seventh, and Ninth Armies. During the 1930s, the French had constructed the Maginot Line and this line had been designed to deter a German invasion across the Franco-German border and funnel an attack into Belgium, which could then be met by the best divisions of the French Army. Thus, any war would take place outside of French territory avoiding a repeat of the First World War. He believed that any enemy force emerging from the forest would be vulnerable to a pincer attack, the French commander-in-chief, Maurice Gamelin, also believed the area to be of a limited threat, noting that it never favoured large operations. With this in mind, the area was lightly defended. The initial plan for the German invasion of France called for an encirclement attack through the Netherlands and Belgium, avoiding the Maginot Line. Erich von Manstein, then Chief of Staff of the German Army Group A, prepared the outline of a different plan and submitted it to the OKH via his superior, Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt. Mansteins plan suggested that Panzer divisions should attack through the Ardennes, then establish bridgeheads on the Meuse River, the Germans would thus cut off the Allied armies in Belgium and Flanders. This part of the later became known as the Sichelschnitt. Adolf Hitler approved a version of Mansteins ideas, today known as the Manstein Plan

10.
Home Guard (United Kingdom)
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The Home Guard was a defence organisation of the British Army during the Second World War. Their role was to act as a defence force, in case of invasion by the forces of Nazi Germany. They were to try to slow down the advance of the enemy, there was a Home Guard during the First World War although this was not on the same scale as its Second World War successor. The origins of the Second World War Home Guard can be traced to Captain Tom Wintringham, despite great interest by the War Office in the books assertion that security is possible, Wintringhams call to train 100,000 men immediately was not implemented. Calls for some form of defence force soon began to be heard from the press. This apparent lack of focus led to many LDV members becoming impatient, in the absence of proper weapons, many LDV units broke into museums and appropriated whatever weapons could be found, or equipped themselves with private weapons such as shotguns. Another problem that was encountered as the LDV was organised was the definition of the role the organisation was to play, the War Office believed that the LDV would act best in such a passive role because of its lack of training, weapons and proper equipment. However such a role clashed with the expectations of LDV commanders and members, the Home Guard had a number of secret roles. This included sabotage units who would disable factories and petrol installations following invasion and these bases, upwards of 600 in number, were able to support units ranging in size from squads to companies. The Home Guard did not, initially, admit women to its ranks, some women formed their own groups like the Amazon Defence Corps. In December 1941, an organised but still unofficial Womens Home Defence was formed under the direction of Dr Edith Summerskill. WHD members were taught weapons training and basic military training, limited female involvement was permitted later on the understanding that these would be in traditional female support roles and not in any way seen as combatants. Auxiliary Units however may have had members in both support and combat roles, although records are scarce. Even once the threat of invasion had passed, the Home Guard remained in existence manning guard posts, in 1942 the National Service Act allowed for compulsory enrolment where units were below strength. At this time, the lowest rank within the Home Guard and it is a common fallacy that the Home Guard never fired a shot in anger during the whole of the Second World War. In fact individual Home Guardsmen helped man anti-aircraft guns as far back as the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940. By 1943 the Home Guard operated its own dedicated batteries of anti-aircraft guns and they are credited with shooting down numerous Luftwaffe aircraft and the V-1 flying bombs which followed them in the summer of 1944. The Home Guards first official kill was shot down on Tyneside in 1943, the Home Guard in Northern Ireland also took part in gun battles with the IRA

11.
Auxiliary Territorial Service
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The Auxiliary Territorial Service was the womens branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a voluntary service, and existed until 1 February 1949. The ATS had its roots in the Womens Auxiliary Army Corps, during the First World War its members served in a number of jobs including clerks, cooks, telephonists and waitresses. The WAAC was disbanded four years in 1921. The council decided that the ATS would be attached to the Territorial Army, the first recruits to the ATS were employed as cooks, clerks and storekeepers. At the outbreak of the Second World War,300 ATS members were billeted to France, as the German Army advanced through France, the British Expeditionary Force was driven back towards the English Channel. This led to the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk in May 1940, as more men joined the war effort, it was decided to increase the size of the ATS, with numbers reaching 65,000 by September 1941. Women between the ages of 17 and 43 were allowed to join, although these rules were relaxed in order to allow WAAC veterans to join up to the age of 50. The duties of members were expanded, seeing ATS orderlies, drivers, postal workers. By comparing the location of the shells detonation and the target. In December 1941, Parliament passed the National Service Act, which called up unmarried women between 20 and 30 years old to join one of the auxiliary services and these were the ATS, the Womens Royal Naval Service, the Womens Auxiliary Air Force and the Womens Transport Service. Married women were later called up, although pregnant women. Other options under the Act included joining the Womens Voluntary Service, there was also provision made in the act for objection to service on moral grounds, as about a third of those on the conscientious objectors list were women. A number of women were prosecuted as a result of the act, despite this, by 1943 about 9 out of 10 women were taking an active part in the war effort. However, these roles were not without risk, and there were, many other searchlight and anti-aircraft regiments on Home Defence followed, freeing men aged under 30 of medical category A1 for transfer to the infantry. Several Heavy Anti-Aircraft regiments deployed to North West Europe with 21st Army Group in 1944–45 were Mixed regiments, by VE Day and before demobilization, there were over 190,000 members of the womens Auxiliary Territorial Service. Famous members of the ATS included Mary Churchill, youngest daughter of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the King, after the cessation of hostilities women continued to serve in the ATS, as well as in the WRNS and WAAF. It was succeeded by the Womens Royal Army Corps, which formed on 1 February 1949 under Army Order 6, initially ranks were completely different from those of the army, but used the same rank insignia, although the crown was replaced by a laurel wreath

12.
1st Anti-Aircraft Division (United Kingdom)
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The 1st Anti-Aircraft Division was an Air Defence formation of the British Army before and during the early years of World War II. It defended London during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz, 1st AA Division was organised on 15 December 1935 at Hillingdon House, RAF Uxbridge. The headquarters of the division was formed by converting 47th Infantry Division, whose General Officer Commanding, thomson, continued as GOC of the new formation. Thomson had been Commander TA Air Defence Brigades and Inspector of Regular AA Units and he also chaired the War Office committee on expansion and mobilisation of TA AA units, which sat from 1935 to 1937. Tompson was followed in 1937 by Maj-Gen Sir Frederick Pile, who was promoted in 1939 to command the whole of Anti-Aircraft Command,1 AA Division was initially composed of the following formations and units, General Officer Commanding, Major-General R. H. D. The TAs AA units were mobilised on 23 September 1938 during the Munich Crisis, the staff of 1st AA Division now had to implement the Tompson Committees plan. The call-out of key parties by telephone and telegram went well, because the units possessed only a small scale of transport, elaborate plans had been made to requisition civilian vehicles, ranging from heavy lorries to buses and private cars. Equipment was drawn from mobilisation stores, and the detachments ferried out to their war stations, despite some failures and problems, the emergency positions covering London were manned and most of the equipment was in place within 24 hours. The emergency mobilisation lasted nearly three weeks before the TA units were released on 14 October, the existing divisions and brigades were expanded, and the whole AA defence of the United Kingdom was taken over by Anti-Aircraft Command on 1 April 1939. A new 6th AA Division was formed by duplicating 1st AA Divisions HQ at Uxbridge, 6th AA Division took over responsibility for defending the Thames Estuary and the adjacent areas of Essex and North Kent, allowing 1st AA Division to concentrate on the defence of London. 27th, 28th and 29th AA Brigades were transferred to the new formation, the deterioration in international relations during 1939 led to a partial mobilisation in June, and a proportion of TA AA units manned their war stations under a rotation system known as Couverture. Full mobilisation of AA Command came in August 1939, ahead of the declaration of war on 3 September 1939, when the UK declared war on 3 September 1939,1 AA Division had the following composition, GOC, Major-General F. L. M. Royal Artillery AA units were now designated Heavy Anti-Aircraft, Light Anti-Aircraft, or Searchlight regiments, 1st AA Division had established a control centre at a disused Underground station at Brompton Road. An elaborate network of dedicated telephone lines was laid by the General Post Office and Royal Corps of Signals, linking the AA sites, on mobilisation in August 1939, 1st AA Division controlled 159 HAA guns,96 searchlights, and a mixture of LAA guns. Most of the HAA guns were assigned to the IAZ, with one troop of 4 guns at RAF Fighter Command HQ at Stanmore, the London IAZ extended from Cheshunt and Dagenham in the east to Bexley and Mitcham in the south and to Richmond and Northolt in the west. The HAA positions were sited to produce an optimum density of fire of at least 16 guns engaging any one raid simultaneously. 26th AA Brigade still had the heaviest concentration of guns, mainly static 3. 7-inch and 4. 5-inch guns, 48th AA Brigade had a mixture of 3.7 and 4. 5-inch guns, half of the former being mobile. 49th AA Brigade had older 3-inch guns, but also controlled a higher proportion of LAA sites at Vital Points, superimposed on the IAZ were the 73 searchlight sites controlled by 38th AA Bde